Behind the scenes

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Yesterday morning I woke up, caffeinated myself, ate my butternut coconut oats, went for quick expensive shopping trip on the Promenade, then came home for a nice wheatberry lunch.  What you DIDN’T see was what prompted this…

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Yucky weather.  WSJ’s Style & Fashion section.  Dangerous duo.

I ended up spending $218 at Forever21 in under 2 hours – yikes!  Good thing I’m starting my job soon…

After lunch I went grocery shopping.  I’ve found that I spend way less on groceries when I shop in a semi-full state (sadly, this is rather necessary since I’m trying to avoid buying everything that strikes my fancy in Whole Foods [read: everything under the sun]).  Never mind the fact that I just blew the month’s budget on clothes…

Once I returned home, I unloaded my loot and did some serious snacking.  In the interest of full disclosure purging my camera, I will share with you the variety of nibbles and bites. 

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Grapes.  Whole Foods raw trail mix.

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Accidental home-made cheerio nut carob chip clusters (“accidental” because the carob chips in my home-made trail mix melted in the car and then rehardened…binding the trail mix into clusters). 

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A pretty tasty accident! 

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Crunch.

So you see, I was a bit of a snackface throughout the PM…metabolism be damned, I wasn’t even full. 

With the rain situation outside, I opted for an indoor workout…Jillian to the rescue.  For everyone who has been asking about my pre-wedding workout regimen, I swear I will do a post on it eventually.  I’ll tell you right now though, it involved The Shred.  After busting out a quick 20 minutes (level 1), I showered and brainstormed dinner ideas.

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In addition to this heaping plate of sweet potato and carrot fries (tutorial to follow), I had two (unphotographed) seitan patties and a few figs.  I’m trying to give you the behind the scenes view of the blog, since the camera doesn’t always capture everything. 

Now back to those fries…

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I chopped 3 big carrots and 1 large sweet potato into matchstick shaped cuts.  The thinner, the better.

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As annoying (and time consuming) as it is to chop them so small, they bake WAY better this way and get all crispy and fry-like. 

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While chopping preheat the oven to 400.  Once the veggies are prepped and the oven is hot, spread them out onto a (thoroughly) sprayed baking sheet.  Next, spray the veggies with more cooking spray.  Seriously, douse them.  Then sprinkle salt on top (and/or any other seasonings – i.e. paprika, cinnamon and sugar, garlic and rosemary, etc.).

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After you cook the fries for 5 minutes at 400 degrees, crank the oven setting all the way up to broil for another 10 minutes.  I love using the broil setting because it gets the top of the fries all dark and crispy.

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Heavenly. 

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Immediately pile onto a plate and serve with copious amounts of ketchup. 

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Mountain ‘o Fries. 

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I happily noshed through my healthy, vegan-ified bar food while watching Monday Night Football. 

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It’s the only way to get through a Monday…

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Since Kyle didn’t get home ‘til 10 pm, I was up well past midnight.  Which means (among other things), I needed (yes, needed) a few bowls of trail mix for dessert.  It also means my sleep habits are going to be jacked up now, but that’s not too big of a concern since I don’t start work for another week. 

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Comments (12)

  1. Exercise and Eat

    Umm carrots and sweet potatoes covered with ketchup sounds like the best remake of bar food EVER

  2. Mama Pea

    I so want your accidental trail mix bars and I just got done with my own pile of carrot fries. Amen.

  3. Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga)

    “I ended up spending $218 at Forever21”—that’s easy to do. Well, if you’re buying their sweaters which I bought 2 of last week. Or you can wind up with 18 tshirts or whatever combo you buy, it can add up…fast!

    Carrot fries…I make mine by roasting in coconut oil. Love the way it makes them taste like im eating a bottle of hawaiian tropic, in the best possible way i mean that!

  4. Sarah @Gluten-free tries Vegan

    I am loving roasted/baked sweet potatoes at the moment! Haven’t had carrot fries for ages though… will have to change that.

    And, whole foods- i’m glad that it’s not in the UK otherwise I’d be rather skint.

    xxx

  5. Katie

    I need to make some carrot/sweet potato fries immediately. Also, those accidental trail mix clusters are fantastic – I may accidentally leave my trail mix in the car tomorrow so I can come out to those!

  6. Graze With Me

    I love carrot fries – for some reason raw carrots are just getting old. Even with generous amounts of hummus.

    I’m an online shopping addict. It gets worse when the seasons change….the trick is to buy the hubs one item and my shopping spree is more likely to be justified. 🙂

  7. julie

    i LOVE carrot fries haha they’re so underrated. i love dipping them in peanut butter and even more i have a love of dunking them in tzatziki! mmm 🙂

    fries are such a good mnf snack!

    i think we should open a sports bar that serves healthy bar food. right?!

  8. Holly

    reasons why elise & holly should be friends in real life: (1) bonding over cardboard-like wafers you get at Catholic mass, (2) knowing what Tagalog is (and it’s not a candy, y’all), (3) the mutual love we feel for wheatberries, (4) being able to pound down plates of veggie fries like it’s no big deal (it’s not), (5) snarky Lindsay Lohan references, (6) an appreciation for the unique – including those GORGEOUS wedding centerpieces, (7) Greek yogurt parties, (8) Whole Foods parties, (9) because we rule.

  9. Tina @ Faith Fitness Fun

    Thanks so much for visiting my blog so I could come find yours. 🙂 I have snacky days like that too. I hate when I can just never really feel full.

  10. loveeatnowafter

    forever21 is my favorite store ever- i think its pretty much impossible for me to go in there without coming out $100 poorer lol

    i made carrot fries over the weekend and they are pretty much amazeballs- ive only ever made sweetpotato ones and these tasted so similar i could have convinced myself that i really did make potato ones only i instantly remembered the 30 minutes it took me to peel and chop up all those carrots into skinny little pieces lol

    the accidental clusters are awesome by the way ive definitely left stuff like that in my car and had it form into delicious bites!

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